Dark Memories
by CasoraTigerKin
Summary: TF:A-AU Pre Endgame pt.2 Prowl's past is a nightmare but he's not talking. Jazz wants answers. Future P/J
1. Chapter 1

Title: Dark Memories: Chapter One  
>Rating: PG<br>Summery: Prowl's past is catching up to him.  
>CharactersParings: Jazz/Prowl  
>Disclaimer: Transformers (c) Hasbro<br>Authors Note: I am reposting the relevant drabbles from "Thirteen Stories of Halloween" as chapter one.

1. Darkness

It was dark underground and one of the two mechs trapped in the small space was trying desperately to ignore that fact, and failing miserably. _Its dark…I can't see…what if… _Prowl cut off that train of thought before it had a chance to go further, knowing that would only make the situation that much worse. If the other cyberninja found out that he was afraid…no…terrified of the dark, he could just imagine the other laughter. _It was dark when they came… _once again Prowl cut the thought off, unfortunately he knew that if they weren't rescued soon he was probably going to end up having a nervous breakdown… _Why in Primus's name had he agreed to explore this blasted cave system with Jazz in the first place?...and why did Lugnut have to show up and attack us? _

Jazz leaned back against the wall, and glanced over at Prowl. The other ninja's behavior was starting to worry him but shockingly he didn't know what to help. He had tried to figure out what was wrong but Prowl had just snapped at him whenever he tried to ask. As the hours ticked by Jazz's worry increased as Prowl became increasingly twitchy. By now Jazz was sure that the dark ninja was terrified by the situation, more importantly by blackness surrounding them. Normally Jazz would have made light of such a fear but one look at the dark cyberninja told him that such an approach would just make things worse. The beginnings of a plan to distract the other had half-formed in his processor when a sharp sound broke the near silence, **"JAZZ! PROWL!" **The shout had an immediate effect on the trapped pair, both of whom began calling back to their rescuers. It took nearly an hour for Optimus and Bulkhead to clear the rockslide trapping the ninjas, and when the final rocks were cleared to two ninjas where thrilled to see the sun once more. As they drove back to base Jazz kept a scanner on Prowl and vowed to find out why he was so afraid of the dark.

6. Crescent Moon

Prowl sat in his tree and watched the moon. To any outside observer it would seem that he was the picture of peace and serenity. In reality his spark was heavy with tension and turmoil. It had been over a week since that disastrous spelunking expedition and Prowl had yet to get over it. One thing he liked about this planet was the fact that its moon kept the nights from being too dark most of the time, even though it was currently only a thin crescent its light was enough to keep the nightmares at bay. The downside of moon's current phase however; was that the thin band reminded him of another band, a visor to be exact. He was sure that Jazz now knew that darkness terrified him but surprisingly the other ninja hadn't said a word about it to anyone. Prowl was grateful for this, but the way Jazz had been watching lately him made him uneasy. Back on Cybertron Jazz had a reputation for being able to convince a mech to tell his innermost secrets. Prowl was determined to thwart him however as he had no desire to relive the day his world shattered.

7. Orange

_The night was peaceful as the small youngling curled up in his femme-creator's lap with his favorite plush toy held tight. The two adult bots shared a brief chaste kiss before turning their gaze to the small form of their creation. When the mech reached over to rub his creation's helm a pair of sleepy blue optics opened and the youngling cooed softly, seeing this the mech's optics filled with joy. The femme whispered softly to youngling before standing up and carrying the small form into the next room. The scene didn't stay peaceful however, as the femme reached the youngling's bed there came a great ruckus from the rest of the house._

_The youngling woke to the sounds of screaming and destruction beyond the door, before it burst open to reveal what could only be called monsters. The monsters were mostly brilliant orange in coloration with splotches of blue and red and their forms undulated and danced as if they were made of living flames. A pair of them rushed his femme-creator grabbing and dragging her into the other room, their touch melting her plating on contact. The youngling was frozen in shock as the rest of the monsters pounced on his creators and violently tore them to sheds. By now the flames had spread from the monsters forms to the rest of the room tinting everything orange, and the youngling cowered as the monsters turned their attention to him. The largest one's mouth twisted into a fanged mockery of a grin before it lunged for the youngling… _

Prowl woke with a start, covered in condensation and trembling uncontrollably. It took several minutes for him to calm down, and when the trembling slowed he knew he would have to deal with this somehow. He hadn't had that particular nightmare since had left the youngling centers. Prowl shivered at the memory of those dark, cold hallways filled with harried mechs and femmes who had no time to spare for a frightened youngling. Banishing the memory Prowl swung his legs over the edge of his berth and stood up; he knew from experience that he wouldn't get any more recharge following that particular nightmare. He moved to the center of the room and sank down to try meditating the nightmare away.

Prowl was so shaken by the nightmare that he never noticed Jazz's presence on the roof above him. The other ninja had taken to checking in on his counterpart after their caving incident but so far had never witnessed anything like the drama that had taken place just minutes prior. Jazz now knew that something was very wrong despite his fellow ninja's repeated dismissal of his concerns. The black and white swore then and there that he was going to find out the truth whether or not Prowl wanted him to.


	2. Chapter 2

Title: Dark Memories

Chapter Two  
>Rating: PG<br>Summery: Jazz reflects over the events of the last few weeks. And looks for intel elsewhere.  
>CharactersParings: Jazz/Prowl pre-relationship

Alerts: AU- Yokotron is alive; he survived the attack on the dojo. Jazz has been indefinitely assigned to Earth as the Elite Guard liaison.  
>Disclaimer: Transformers (c) Hasbro<p>

The horizon was just beginning to lighten with the first light of dawn as a white mech made his way out of the water and up the beach of an island in the middle of Lake Erie. Glancing over his shoulder at the city he had just left, the mech's resolve solidified as he recalled his self appointed mission. Jazz sighed as he the events that had brought him to this point drifted through his processor. Upon returning to Earth he had hoped to establish some sort of relationship with a certain member of Optimus's team. Prowl was a gorgeous black and gold cycleformer with the added bonus of being a fellow ninja. His quiet and reserved personality had, for some unfathomable reason, immediately endeared him to the white ninja in the short span of their pervious acquaintance.

When the guard had left Earth he'd been disappointed but optimistic of his chances at looking the mech up once the Decepticon crisis was over and the mech was back on Cybertron. Thus when the council had decided to send him back to Earth as backup and to improve communications by installing a tachyon satellite in orbit, Jazz had joyfully accepted the mission. As his journey had gone smoothly and the installation of the satellite had been completed without any problems, Jazz had high hopes for a successful courting of his intended mate.

After landing his shuttle on Dinobot Island, he had been informed by Optimus that the humans of Detroit had been very upset about the Elite Guard parking their ship in the middle of the city on their last visit, and getting settled in he had started on his courtship plans. The first phase, which consisted of getting his intended used to him via joining him in meditation and offering himself as a sparring partner, had been completed successfully. After about two weeks, Prowl was willing to allow him to spend time with him around the base as well letting him tag along on his patrols.

At that point Jazz decided to start on his second phase, getting the mech alone repeatedly so they could get to know one another. Unfortunately phase two crashed and burned. It started when Sari told him about a nearby cavern system that had some interesting rock formations. By this point he had already figured out Prowl's love of nature and figured that a visit to the caves would be a good way to get a chance to talk to the mech without worrying about eavesdroppers. At that point things started to get rocky; first it took a lot of begging to get Prowl to even agree to the trip. Then to make matters even worse upon arriving at the cavern they were attacked by a very large Decepticon, who Jazz would later learn was designated Lugnut. The fight with the con was short as the mech attacked with a barrage of missiles that chased the ninjas into the cavern and collapsed the entrance, trapping the pair in total darkness.

Once the rocks stopped falling Jazz and Prowl had listened carefully for any sign that the con outside would try something else to permanently offline them. After nearly ten minutes had passed with the only sounds reaching their audios were those emanating from their own systems the pair relaxed in relief, or at least Jazz had. To the white ninja's shock and dismay his companion proceeded to become even more tense and edgy as the hours slowly ticked by. The pair had sent out a distress signal as soon as they encountered the Decepticon so Jazz had known it was only a matter of time before the rest of the team showed up to dig them out, nevertheless mentioning this to Prowl had simply caused the mech to snap at him irritably. Jazz had been confused by Prowls response and the fact that all further attempts at finding out what was bothering the other ninja were vehemently rebuffed. They had been stuck underground for well over an hour when Jazz came to a startling conclusion; Prowl was afraid of the dark. As he could easily hear his companion's intakes cycling rapidly, the white ninja was surprised that he didn't make the connection sooner. Unfortunately for Jazz, this revelation simply posed questions that only Prowl could answer. Nebulous plans to distract the dark ninja had swirled slowly through Jazz's mind but all had been discarded as they included poking fun at such a simple fear; he had a strong feeling that if he did he would alienate the other ninja very quickly.

Jazz had just started to get serious about distracting Prowl and calming him down when shouts of their names shattered the near silence. Following their replies it had taken Optimus and the rest of his bots just over an hour to break through the rockslide and open a gap large enough to let them escape. While Jazz had been thrilled to see daylight again he had still been worried about Prowl, however once again his entreaties had been ignored or brushed off with assurances that the other was fine. He had spent the drive home with a scanner tuned to the motorcycle and a lot of unanswered questions playing through his processor.

Now Jazz would readily admit that he was a live and let live type of mech. He was sure that he would have dismissed Prowl's reaction to being trapped in the dark as a onetime incident if not for what he had witnessed two weeks after the cave-in. There had been no moon when he had returned from a late patrol and decided to spend some time meditating on the roof before heading in to get some recharge. He hadn't been planning to check in on his fellow ninja that night but the soft barely audible sounds that reached his audios as he walked past the entrance to Prowl's room convinced him otherwise, crouching down he had peered through the foliage into the darkened room below. What he saw had nearly stopped his spark; Prowl writhed on his berth, armor glistening heavily with condensation, the quiet terrified whimpers escaping his vocalizer told Jazz that the mech below was having a very intense nightmare. He had just made up his mind to go to him when Prowl awoke with a strangled gasp, bolting upright on his berth shaking wildly. Jazz had quickly dropped to the ground to avoid being discovered, but it had been an unnecessary precaution as Prowl had apparently been so thoroughly shaken by the nightmare that he never looked up, he had then stayed until it became obvious that the dark ninja wasn't going back to recharge before backing away.

Situating himself on the other side of the roof, Jazz had forgone recharge that night as he began to work out a plan to help his fellow ninja. The first thing he decided he needed was more information about what was going on. This turned out to be a major snag as Prowl wasn't being forthcoming and the rest of the bots had only known him for a short period of time. Jazz had remained stuck on this problem for nearly a week before having an epiphany. Said epiphany was the reason he had swam to Dinobot Island after sneaking out of the base before sunrise; he had a call to Cybertron to place and the fewer questions asked the better. Jazz just hoped his sensei knew more about the situation than he did.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Summery: Jazz contacts his sensei and plans are made.  
>CharactersParings: Jazz/Prowl (pre-relationship), Yoketron  
>Disclaimer: Transformers (c) Hasbro<p>

Other AU notes relevant to plot: Prowl came to the dojo via the legal system but not for being picked up for up for draft dodging. He was convicted of one too many misdemeanors, think the three strikes rule in our legal system, and because he was a minor was given a choice between prison and joining the dojo. The youngling centers are no longer responsible for their charges after they receive their first adult upgrade as they are theoretically able to care for themselves; however the ones that service poorer sectors tend to upgrade the younglings under their care ASAP to reduce the time they need to care for them to conserve funds. Prowl was a victim of this and thus when he was convicted of his crimes was still underage even though he had his adult frame.

* * *

><p>Dinobot Island, Lake Erie, Earth<p>

The trip to his landing site was brief as the mech knew exactly where he was going; utilizing his accumulated stealth skills the mech managed to avoid detection by the islands occupants. Upon reaching his destination Jazz glanced around the small clearing, after confirming the coast was clear he quickly crossed the short distance to his shuttle and silently slipped inside. Once the hatch's locking mechanism engaged the white ninja relaxed and headed to the cockpit to access the shuttles communications console. After booting up the console and connecting with the tachyon satellite Jazz input his desired com number and initiated the signal. As he settled down to wait for the connection to complete Jazz thanked Primus for being a trusted member of Ultra Magnus's team, his status as such allowed him a com code that didn't require repeated rerouting through various hubs thus allowing him to connect directly to target.

An hour slowly passed and Jazz got up to stretch, redoing his time calculations one more time. If his calculations were correct he figured his sensei would have been awake for some time now, he just hoped Yoketron was actually present at the dojo to take the call. He had the day off from patrol that day and had left a message telling the team that he was going to explore the city by himself. Given that it was currently a little past seven he figured he had at least a couple of hours before the team found his note and realized he was gone and most likely another three or four before they started to look for him; hopefully by that time he would have managed to finish his discussion with his sensei and get back to the mainland. Jazz decided to continue the signal for another couple hours and settled back down to wait. …_He just wished that Yoketron would hurry up and answer already!..._

Primary Circuit-su Dojo, Cybertron

Being awakened by the insistent blaring of an incoming com. was not one of Yoketron's preferred methods of exiting recharge. Especially after getting back late from Icon after meeting with the Autobot Council to once again reassure them of the safety of the protoforms. Ever since Megatron's return was confirmed the council had become exceedingly paranoid about keeping them out of the Decepticon's hands. Yoketron had learned over the course of his life to take things in stride, but he had to admit to himself that the daily check-in calls were _extremely_ annoying. Giving up continuing to recharge as a lost cause, Yoketron got up irritably and stalked over to the beeping com. unit. Schooling his features into his normal stern visage he connected the call with an annoyed motion, he fully intended to give whoever was calling a piece of his mind as the council should be aware of his continued existence due to the fact that it had been less than a solar cycle since he had left Iacon.

His annoyance dissipated as the monitor sprang to life to reveal the dozing form of one of his favorite students, one who he knew was stationed off planet. Yoketron took a few moments to study the sleeping form before clearing his vocalizer and calling his student's name. He let a small smile appear as Jazz started awake and looked blurrily at the monitor. Once the sleep had cleared from the visored mech's features Yoketron greeted his student bemusedly, "Good evening Jazz, I suppose you have a reason for calling in the middle of the night." Jazz looked confused for a moment before sheepishly replying, "Sorry for waking you sensei. I guess my time conversions where wrong, it's already morning here on Earth." Yoketron was amused by his student's initial reply but the younger mech's next words woke a feeling of dread in his spark. "As much as I'd like to chat this really isn't a social call. I hate to ask but how much do you know about Prowl's past?"

Yoketron froze for a moment as his student's words registered before apprehensively voicing the only questions he could, "Why? Has something happened to him?" Only his years of teaching the younger mech allowed Yoketron to catch the rather guilty expression that flashed across Jazz's face as he briefly broke eye contact with his sensei. Yoketron's worry increased as Jazz resumed eye contact and began his narrative, "As much as I hate to admit it, I think this whole mess is a least partly my fault…" By the time Jazz finished speaking Yoketron was in a mild state of shock. Due to the fact that any mech he accepted for training via a court order was placed in a room with a monitoring system, he had been aware that Prowl had nightmares occasionally but nothing as serious as what Jazz was describing. Gathering his thoughts Yoketron mentally centered himself before questioning his student, "What do you need me to do?"

Jazz looked contemplative before replying, "I haven't really been able to look into Prowl's background due to my current posting, and even if I was on Cybertron I don't think I have the clearance to access more than just his basic file. Given you were his guardian at one point I was hoping you might have the access to dig a little deeper. I just can't shake the feeling that this goes deeper than just a phobia." Yoketron sighed at his student's entreating expression. After considering the fact that that Jazz's "feelings" tended to be very accurate he made his decision, "I'll see what I can find in his records, do you think it would help I talked Ultra Magnus into letting me catch a ride on the next ship going near Earth?" Jazz's face lightened as he replied, "That would be great sensei, Prowl's been avoiding me lately. Maybe you can get him to start talking." Jazz paused for a moment before continuing, "I hate to cut this short but alarm just went off. If I don't get back to the mainland soon the others will come looking for me. If you don't mind I'll contact you in a few days to see what you find out and confirm your travel plans." Yoketron nodded, "I'll be expecting your call, but could you try not to call in the middle of the night next time?" Jazz smiled slightly and replied before closing the connection, "Will do sensei, good luck getting Ultra's approval for your flight."

After shutting the communication terminal down Yoketron took a moment to fully process the information his student had given him. If Jazz was right, and he usually was, then something was seriously wrong with Prowl. Given his wide awake state Yoketron decided to get a start on going through Prowl's personal files. He was already familiar with Prowl's criminal and medical files, due to the nature of his assuming guardianship over the young mech, but had never perused his personal file as a measure of respect for his charge. Sighing over the perceived breach of trust the ninja master shook himself from his memories and headed for the dojo's main terminal.


End file.
